Taxpayer Group Responds to Cullen

This is a response to the exchange between Bay Councillor Alex Cullen and the Ottawa Taxpayer Advocacy Group. To see the first trading of e-mails, click here:

Jan 26, 2010

Dear Mayoral Candidate Alex Cullen,

We respectful find your response condescending and misleading, as you do not address the substance of our allegations. You are wrong on property taxes and wrong on defending compensation figures that are being used to mislead Council and the public. We hope that you and your colleagues will do your best to correct the budget figures and be upfront with us about the true tax increase. Thanks to Councilor Wilkinson for looking into this. We await your feedback.

http://vip.newsinsider.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/review_ottawa_c.xls2008 Compensation $1,134,564,868 or an increase of $74,614,952 from previous year2007 Compensation $1,059,949,916 or an increase of $63,419,658 from previous year2006 Compensation $996,530,258 or an increase of $55,943,523 from previous yearThis means that the average yearly increase in wages is $65 million dollars.This means that the budget for 2010 should be $1,264,564,868Why then is staff low balling the figure to $1,221,997,000?

User fees are up 30% from $447,085,711 to $583,443,378 million Compensation up 47% from $772,787,977 to $1,134,564,868 Long term debt is up 56% to $1.1 billion Accumulated sick leave is up 72% to $92 million Accrued payable pension is up 45% to $156 million

Ottawa in Ontario by the Frontier Institute: http://www.fcpp.org/images/publications/52.%202008Dec%20LGPI.pdf According to the frontier institute we are last in Ontario when you consider, net financial assets, liabilities and long term debt. Is this because if you dare to have a different opinion some people might try to put you in jail with trumped up charges? Is this legal extortion? In 2007: Net Financial Assets / Household Average for Ontario $1,284, Ottawa – $1,225, our City is worth less than the average in Ontario by $2,509 or about 200%.

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